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The town of Atherton has been embroiled in a drawn-out and contentious housing element update process since 2022. The state has not approved the town’s housing plans for 2023 through 2031.
At present, the town is still working with residents and HCD to identify potential sites for multifamily housing and finalize revisions to the town’s zoning ordinances. However, Atherton plans to fulfill as much as 80% of its housing requirements through the construction and rental of accessory dwelling units. As of January 2024, these are the properties currently under consideration for multifamily development in Atherton:
At a joint meeting on April 29, the Atherton City Council and Planning Commission reviewed a draft of the data and narratives section of the town’s housing element document. California Department of Housing and Community Development requested these changes in its April 2023 letter rejecting Atherton’s proposed housing element. The town’s housing plan leaned heavily into ADUs. There are 280 such units in the plan.
“The changes made will be incorporated into the draft document to be reviewed by the Planning Commission in June. If the commission moves the document forward, it will hit the council agenda in July,” said Atherton Town Manager George Rodericks in his April monthly newsletter. “The commission and council can take multiple meetings to review the information so the timeline may be extended as a result.”
Every eight years, jurisdictions across California are required to update their plan under the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation program. This cycle, the town must plan for the development of 348 new housing units, a significant increase from the previous planning period.
In order to have a compliant housing element, the town must address comments from the state on its housing element draft, and bring town housing ordinances up to speed with state legislation.
In addition to implementing changes to the housing element document itself, the town is working on California Environmental Quality Act analysis for proposed multifamily sites. Rodericks said postcards announcing a public comment period for the town’s multifamily housing CEQA report would be mailed to Atherton residents within the week. The public comment period will include a hearing before the Planning Commission.
After the public comment period, the potential multifamily sites will return to the town Planning Commission, and then City Council for final selection.
This would likely happen in June, said Rodericks.
Atherton’s Planning Commission is also reviewing proposed Objective Design Standards for potential multifamily development in the town.
These standards would “create some consistency and expectations for setbacks, heights, privacy issues and all that,” said Rodericks.
In a previous monthly newsletter, Rodericks outlined the importance of objective design standards for Atherton residents:
“These design standards are the only basis upon which the town can deny a development. Therefore, it is important that the town carefully craft these standards to not only comply with state law; but also to provide applicants with a clear set of objective standards that will require any proposed development to be designed in a way that ensures neighborhood and community compatible design.”
At the same time, Atherton is working on updating various housing ordinances in order to be compliant with state land-use regulations.
According to HCD, nine out of 21 jurisdictions in the county are now in full compliance with their housing element. They are: Menlo Park, Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Foster City, Hillsborough, Millbrae, Redwood City and South San Francisco. The state recently revoked Portola Valley’s housing element.
ADUs still play big part in town’s housing plans
The town has already passed a new accessory dwelling unit ordinance, which allows homeowners to add a bonus ADU to their property if their lot is larger than 2 acres, and allows ADUs to be built above detached garages as long as they conform to the town’s height and screening requirements. This ordinance also brings the town into compliance with new state regulations regarding ADUs.
Atherton is also working on drafting and implementing a new inclusionary housing ordinance. This ordinance would require at least 20% of any proposed multifamily development to be set aside for lower-income housing.
This ordinance would also include an affordable housing fee program, which would impose a small fee on new single family developments, and set that money aside in an inclusionary housing fund that the town will establish. That fee could be waived if a homeowner opts to build an ADU instead.
“The community is then able to use that (fund) as a resource to build senior housing or other types of affordable housing,” said Rodericks.
Atherton’s proposed affordable housing fee would apply to all new single-family developments. Other local municipalities, such as Redwood City, have established similar fees, but tend to only impose them on larger developments.
“(Our fee) is kind of unique because it doesn’t usually affect single family homes,” said Rodericks. “Usually that affects multifamily developments. So our question right now is, when we do apply it, at what rate will it be applied? … My guess is it’s going to be a very minimal amount per square foot.”
At the same time, Atherton continues to develop a program in partnership with HIP Housing, a San Mateo County nonprofit, to match Atherton homeowners with people who would rent out rooms or ADUs.
“HIP Housing conducts interviews, assists with client applications, conducts background searches, helps determine rent ranges, discusses home provider incentives and provides resource packets for new providers,” says an Atherton flier informing residents about the program.
Once the changes to town ordinances, and any other required land-use changes, have been implemented, Atherton will send the new ordinances, along with the updated housing element document, to HCD for review and approval.
The housing element could be done as early as July, or as late as September, said Rodericks.
“It’s been a challenging time for the town,” he said. “It’s been a total sea change of single-family development, to suddenly now we have to do multifamily. So there’s a whole lot of angst in the community because change is hard. But the council’s goal is to figure out a way to comply with the state requirements and still not lose our community character. That’s a fine line.”
The Housing Elements FAQ page on Atherton’s website shows current projections for new housing that will likely be built in town over the course of the current housing cycle.
You can follow along with Atherton’s housing element update process on the town website.